Patriotic Cupcakes

Over Easter I made a rainbow cake and really enjoyed it...not just eating it...but making it too.  I love being able to add fun colors to food so I thought why not make some patriotic cupcakes for the 4th of July. 

I bought just regular white cake mix and made it like the back of the box instructed.  Once I mixed it all up I divided it into three bowls and colored the cake batter.  I use the gel food coloring as it seems to make brighter colors. 

I lined the cupcake pan and started with spooning in the red batter first.  The white cake mix has a gelled like consistency due to the egg whites so it is easy to "stack" colors without them mixing. 

Here is a picture of the blue cake batter spooned on top of the red batter.  You can see how it lays right on top without mixing.  

You can see just a bit of the red underneath. 

Finally I topped it off with the white cake mix...that didn't need colored. 

Cooked them according to the instructions.  Iced them with white icing to complete the red, white, and blue look.  I sprinkled with with red and blue confectioner sugar. 

Here is the cupcake in all its splendid glory right before getting devoured at our 4th of July picnic!

Here is what the inside looks like.  Patriotic huh?